Playgroup

[Saveourplaygroup]

Do you run or attend a playgroup?

Our local playgroup has been put at risk by the Village Hall Committee trying to charge us a huge rent for the hall which we simply cannot afford.

I am trying to see if IABU challenging the new rental cost.

How much do you pay per session?
How much does it cost to hire the space?
What is included? Drinks for adults, snack for children etc.
What is the maximum you would pay?

Thank you. I am devistated we might lose our lovely little group so any insight you can give about what is 'normal' would be great.

Currently we run for 1.5 hours, provide snack for children and hot drinks for adults. £2 per family.

Were they charging before? It's not unusual at all to charge a fee to use a venue as they have to pay insurance and other fees, of course if it was reasonable and now its ridiculous then that's unfortunate. I used to help run a group and we were paid 50% of the hourly fee as it was deemed of benefit to the community- could you speak to the committee and see if you can negotiate?

I think I'd pay about £5 maximum, but I reckon you'd exclude a lot of families if it's over £3. There's none round here over £3 anyway.

We were charged £7 per hour which went up to £8 at the start of the year. We agreed this was fine and didn't expect to hear anything else. Now they want to charge us £12 per hour (the standard rental charge) from next month. We can't suddenly find 50% extra, we were barely covering the rent as it was.

We pay for 3 hours each week because there is also setup and tidy up time. So we are going from £24 to £36 a week. Last week we had 10 families attend and so got £20, it was a quiet week and we usually have around 12-16 families.

We pay €600 per year . That's one morning a week so with set up up and clean up we have it until about from 9-30 to 12.10. Group runs from 10 to 12ish.

Have you told the village hall committee you can’t afford it? What did they say? Surely the playgroup is an asset to the village?

I'd speak to your parish council to see what support they can offer and also put it on village Facebook groups to try and raise awareness and support from the village.

Have you thought about increasing the costs and if you miss more than two weeks you have to pay half the fee to keep your place. In our playground it was decided by the parents that they would like to pay by standing order as a lot of people would not have cash on them

It depends where you are, I think. We're charged £12 per hour in Surrey and I have a concession because I'm local (geographically!). The hall is attached to the Church and I know they agonise over every increase they're forced to make.

We charge £2.50 for the first child and 50p for each subsequent child. We do art and craft activities and offer a fruit snack and water for the kids; unlimited hot drinks for the adults.

A parent once asked me how much profit I made... 😂

Is your parish council any good? If the village hall tried that here the parish council would go mad, and they do a lot that the village hall benefits from, so they’d listen (or risk their fundraising help!).

I’m not sure what our playgroup pays as I don’t go, not much I am sure. I think it is £2 suggested donation. Our village hall has two rates anyway. One for villagers doing village things and another for external hires which is a lot more (we have various commercial things like yoga on regularly as well as a lot of wedding receptions as it’s next to a pretty church). The external hires subsidise the village things (like the weekly tea and cake for the elderly etc).

One of our groups decided to charge per term in advance, which I thought worked very well. I'm thinking about adopting that policy myself.

We pay £1 per family at both the ones I go to but they are both in church halls so bit different.

We've emailed back to say we can't afford it. No response yet.

We are rural south west.

Hmm, are you near me … is it W … ton?

We have thought about putting the price up but to afford this new rent we would have to charge £4 per family which would drive people away. The local soft play is £5 and you can stay from 9-2.30.

No, not W...ton

They may be in the position that they can't afford not to do the increase. Part of my job includes hiring rooms out and we've had to make a decision that we cannot afford to open if we only have one group in.
Often the group thinks "it's only little old us in, we only have a small room so can't cost much", but if we have one group in then we have to have the public area lights on, pay for a caretaker and (in the winter) there's the heating too plus maintenance is an issue as well.
We're making a notable loss this year and will have to make a hard decision on price rises shortly which will potentially mean some of our groups can't afford to continue-but we can't afford to have them. Our electricity bill earlier this year had our treasurer go pale and sit down suddenly. I know it's gone up since then too.

There are often grants for things like toddler groups, especially if you are working with vulnerable people, which are worth looking in to.

What I'd suggest, rather than going for "we can't afford it", which to me would imply no discussion is wanted, is send a follow up email asking if you can discuss it, and look at ways you can compromise.
For example, if I only had you in, I might suggest that you moved to a time when there were other groups in, which reduces the cost. Or can you reduce to 2.5 hours, or even 2 hours? Do you need 45 minutes to set up and put away-get the families helping and incorporate it into the session?

Is it a stay and play type group? I wouldn’t even pay £2 for one tbh, per family possibly but I only have one DD. The local ones to us are free or 50p, but they’re in churches or ran by the council. I pay about £6 a week for a proper, instructor led class.

Local playgroup gets it free. The hall is property of the church. Local toddler group pays £10ph to use the guide hall.

Our local village halls rent out at 12 pounds an hour for a main hall and six pounds an hour for a smaller room. I go for craft groups and they charge 2 pounds or 2.50 each person per session. Sometimes there are 20 people there, sometimes 6. The extra money is used to buy tea/coffee and biscuits or to put towards craft supplies.

Probably depends where you are, stay and plays have always had a small fee payable here and are always well attended.

OP you could float the idea of an increase and see the appetite, or maybe fundraise? If they won't budge on the price and those aren't workable, could you see if any council buildings have rooms?

Haha I was thinking the same! It’s just gone up to £5 hasn’t it?

Thank you everyone this is really helpful. We have gone back with "the playgroup is a village asset and we hope to agree to a compromise with the committee that means we can continue run"

Are there any grants you can apply for? Our parish council would support with this. There are also other grants. One of the toddler groups in our area ran an easter egg hunt one year to raise funds- they asked for donations of eggs from the community and then charged something like £3-4 a go. They made quite a lot. Could you do some fundraising? A scarecrow hunt, disco, fun day or something?

Are there any grants locally you can apply for? Our local council can help with costs of running groups where I live.